Fiona Govan
A GUNMAN who shot three of his colleagues and wounded a police officer has been euthanised in a Spanish prison before he could face trial.
Marin Eugen Sabau was granted the right to assisted death due to chronic pain he suffered after being injured in a shootout with police.
Known as the ‘gunslinger of Tarragona’ after opening fire on three of his colleagues at the security firm he worked at and also wounding a police officer while making his escape last December.
He had barricaded himself in a house in Tarragona after the shooting and was injured when the building was stormed by police.
The 46-year-old security guard had begged to be allowed to die after he was left a tetraplegic and with one leg amputated. He claimed the wounds caused chronic pain that could not be treated with painkillers due to his fragile state.
He claimed the chronic pain he felt from his injuries, and the fact that he could not be treated with painkillers due to his fragile state, made his life unbearable.
He made an application for assisted suicide under Spain’s new Euthanasia law brought in last year which states that adults with serious and incurable conditions that cause “unbearable suffering” can choose to end their lives.
Courts allowed Sabau’s request and after the failure of legal appeals from victims who argued that he should face justice and took the case to the Constitutional Court, his assisted death was carried out on Tuesday.
His victims railed against the decision to allow the request claiming that ‘justice has failed’.
Luisa Rico was one of those shot on December 14, 2021, when Sabau walked into the Securitas office in Tarragona.
Describing the terror of the attack, during which she was shot in the arm, and its long last effect on her wellbeing she told Radio Ser, that her life changed that day.
“When someone commits a crime, they should face justice. We ask for this. We need it,” she said.
“It is not fair that the rights of Sabau be prioritized when we also have them, and they were violated that day,” she said.
Reacting to the ruling, the lawyer of the police officer who was injured by Sabau said the court had squandered the opportunity to rule on a unique case.
“It was not about preventing euthanasia, but we did want the victims to have a fair trial,” lawyer Jose Natonio Bitos told El Pais newspaper.
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